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Responsible climate change lobbying

Consultation on assessment framework

 

Introduction

AP7, BNP Paribas Asset Management and The Church of England Pensions Board have partnered with Chronos Sustainability Ltd to drive the next steps on responsible climate change lobbying.

Building on feedback from the project Steering and Advisory Committees, feedback obtained from a public consultation in Q3 2020, and on a review of the academic and practitioner literature, we have developed a framework that will assist investors and other stakeholders in assessing whether and to what extent corporate lobbying is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Ahead of these indicators being finalised, we warmly invite you to provide feedback on the draft framework. The consultation will be open for your participation until the close of Friday 21st May 2021.

 
 

Purpose of and background to the project

Building on work undertaken in recent years by stakeholders on several continents, the primary aim of this project has been to develop a global framework for assessing corporate lobbying in a relevant, systematic and credible manner. This will enable companies, investors and other stakeholders to ensure that all efforts – whether delivered at first-hand or through an intermediary such as a trade association – are directed towards activities that positively support the attainment of the goals of the Paris Agreement.

In the early stages of this project we researched the academic and practitioner literature related to corporate climate change lobbying . Drawing on that research, we developed a set of key questions related to corporate climate lobbying, which we put to a public consultation . Based on this work – and drawing on insights from an advisory group that includes AIGCC, Ceres, IGCC, IIGCC, InfluenceMap, the London School of Economics, and the Principles for Responsible Investment – we have identified a set of indicators that we wish to test with stakeholders.

Following this second and final consultation, we will refine and finalise this framework. In addition to the framework, we will make recommendations to the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) and Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) on how a subset of these indicators might be integrated into their assessment and engagement processes.

 

The consultation

The aim of this consultation is to gather views on the overarching Assessment Framework, to confirm that we are assessing the right topics, that we are using the best/most appropriate indicators and that we have not omitted any important indicators.

In total, we are proposing a framework based on 23 indicators, structured around four subject areas:

1. Policy and commitments

2. Governance

3. Action

4. Reporting

 

The consultation questions

The consultation is divided into three parts as follows:

Part A: Some general questions (around your organisation, your sector, your role) which will help us to categorise and analyse responses.

Parts B to E: For each of the four subject areas, we ask three questions:

  • Do you agree these are appropriate indicators for assessing responsible corporate climate change lobbying?

    If not, please explain why this is the case

  • Are there any indicators you would suggest we add in this area?

    If yes, please specify these indicators.

  • Are there any changes (including deletions) you would suggest we make to indicators in this area?

    If yes, please specify these changes.

Part F: Concluding Questions

  • In your opinion, which of these indicators are the most important [4 / 6] for ensuring that corporate climate lobbying is aligned with the attainment of the Paris Goals?

 

For most respondents, we estimate that it will take approximately 30 minutes to complete the survey. Respondents who wish to provide very detailed responses may find that it takes slightly longer to complete the consultation. The consultation will remain open until the close of Friday 21st May 2021 (Pacific Time).

We encourage you to be open and honest in your responses. The information you provide will be stored securely and only accessed in its original form by a small core team for analysis purposes. Personal identifying information (name and email address) will be removed before the resulting analysis is shared outside of the analysis team. Responses will be aggregated at a sector, industry and geographic level. None of your answers will be attributed to you as an individual respondent in public communications without first securing your permission for that usage. If you have any questions or concerns about the use of your data please contact responsible-lobbying@chronossustainability.com

 
 

Further information or questions